Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 139ZD: 139ZD: After Clause 117, insert the following new Clause— ““Pre-consolidation amendments (1) The Secretary of State may by order make such modifications of enactments within subsection (2) as in the Secretary of State’s opinion facilitate, or are otherwise desirable in connection with, the consolidation of any of those enactments. (2) The enactments are— (a) the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (c. 48); (b) the Pensions Act 1995 (c. 26); (c) Parts 1 to 4 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 (c. 30); (d) Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 (c. 19); (e) the Pensions Act 2004 (c. 35); (f) the Pensions Act 2007 (c. 22); (g) this Act; (h) enactments referring to any enactment within paragraphs (a) to (g). (3) No order may be made under this section unless a Bill for consolidating the enactments modified by the order (with or without other enactments) has been presented to either House of Parliament. (4) An order under this section, so far as it modifies any enactment, is not to come into force except in accordance with provision made for the purpose by the Act resulting from that Bill. (5) An order under this section must not make any provision which would, if it were included in an Act of the Scottish Parliament, be within the legislative competence of that Parliament.”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 140B and 142D. The amendment will help to facilitate the consolidation of private pensions legislation. Work is in progress, in conjunction with the Law Commission, to consolidate that legislation, which is currently contained in six different Acts. Presuming Royal Assent to this Bill, that number will rise to seven. As noble Lords will no doubt be aware, strict rules on consolidation mean that no changes can be made, even to correct clear unintended errors, to omit spent or unnecessary provisions, or to remove anomalies or ambiguities. The existing law must be reproduced ““warts and all””. Such issues can, however, be addressed by way of a pre-consolidation order, provided that no change is made to the policy enacted by the legislation. Section 321 of the Pensions Act 2004 provides the power to make a pre-consolidation order. However, as currently drafted, the power extends only to legislation that was in force at the time that the 2004 Act was passed. That means that an order made under the power in Section 321 cannot include any amendments that may be needed in respect of subsequent legislation, specifically the Pensions Act 2007 or the Bill, when enacted. The amendment will ensure that any changes needed in respect of the more recent primary legislation can be addressed though a pre-consolidation order in the same way as for the earlier pensions legislation. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to. Clauses 118 and 119 agreed to. Schedule 9 [Repeals]: